Robert
A. Heinlein wrote these words in 1952 and delivered them to a national
radio audience in a broadcast interview by Edward R. Murrow.

His
wife, Virginia Heinlein, read them when she accepted on his behalf NASA's
Distinguished Public Service Medal on October 6, 1988, awarded him posthumously.

"I
am not going to talk about religious beliefs, but about matters so obvious
that it has gone out of style to mention them."

"I believe in my neighbors."

"I know their faults and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults. Take
Father Michael down our road a piece --I'm not of his creed, but I know
the goodness and charity and lovingkindness that shine in his daily actions.
I believe in Father Mike; if I'm in trouble, I'll go to him. My
next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after
a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee -- no prospect of a fee. I believe
in Doc."

"I
believe in my townspeople. You can knock on any door in our town say,
'I'm hungry,' and you will be fed. Our town is no exception; I've found
the same ready charity everywhere. For the one who says, 'To heck with
you -- I got mine,' there are a hundred, a thousand, who will say, 'Sure,
pal, sit down.'

"I
know that, despite all warnings against hitchhikers, I can step to the
highway, thumb for a ride and in a few minutes a car or a truck will stop
and someone will say, 'Climb in, Mac. How how far you going?'

"I
believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime, yet
for every criminal there are 10,000 honest decent kindly men. If it were
not so, no child would live to grow up, business could not go on from day
to day. Decency is not news; it is buried in the obituaries --but it is a force
stronger than crime."

"I believe in the patient gallantry of nurses...in the
tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight
against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the
land."

"I
believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never
were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence Hall
to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen
who were honest in their bones."

"I
believe that almost all politicians are honest. For every bribed alderman there are hundreds of
politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without
thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true, we would
never have gotten past the thirteen colonies."

"I
believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed
heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River."

"I believe in -- I am proud
to belong to -- the United States. Despite shortcomings, from lynchings
to bad faith in high places, our nation has had the most decent and kindly
internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history."

"And
finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown --in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability....and
goodness.....of the
overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet.
I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by
the skin of our teeth, that we always make it just by the skin of our teeth --but that we will always make it....survive....endure. I believe that this hairless
embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this
animal barely up from the apes, will endure --will endure longer than his
home planet, will spread out to the other planets, to the stars, and beyond, carrying with him
his honesty, his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage --and his
noble essential decency."

"This
I believe with all my heart."

Mrs.
Heinlein received a standing ovation.

Mrs.
Heinlein holds the copyright for "This I believe", and we use it here with
her gracious permission.

The Heinlein
Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science
fiction author Robert Anson Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."